Recorded the first Q&A video today — thanks to everyone who sent in questions. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to talk enough to make a substantial video but I ended up being able to go on for 20 minutes or so — you all made me think, which is nice! I'd like to keep trying this for the next few months at least, so in early December I'll put up another "submit your questions" post for S-rank patrons to join in on, and it'd be lovely to see a few more of you jump in with some ideas if you have a moment or two to spare.

The Q&A video itself will be out on Monday, and it will be public. I'm hoping it'll be something that people find fun and enjoyable on the channel to go along with the game-specific videos — and it might bring a few more people in the direction of this Patreon too, you never know! We shall see, I guess.

Most of today (well, the afternoon; we got up very late) has been spent recording stuff. I already have two weeks' worth of stuff in the can ready to edit, but since Chris and I have planned to get a podcast done next weekend, I figured I'll get some more episodes ready to go so I can take a bit of pressure off myself. I say "pressure"; I love it really, you know that.

I'll be recording some more stuff tomorrow because several of the things I did today ended up being rather substantial videos in their own right. Tomorrow should be a bit "lighter" though; there's two Atari Flashback Classics to record, plus two Lynx classics on Evercade, then I'm well ahead of schedule on videos!

Thanks as always for all your support; answering the Q&As reminded me what awesome people I have following me and supporting my work, so I just want you all to know how much I really do appreciate your faith in me.

Much as I hate it, I've discovered the one advantage of using Microsoft Teams for interminable work meetings: when your annoying boss says something irritating and infuriating, you can yell at them all you want with your mic muted to get at least some of that stress out.

For real, though, I'm getting really sick of it. My boss is of the "control freak" variety, and absolutely loves to find things to pick us up on that we're doing wrong. She repeatedly changes our "processes" in what feels like a deliberate attempt to confuse us, and on more than one occasion (today being one of them) has told us specifically to do one thing, then complained at us for doing it exactly as she told us to do it.

Unfortunately, no-one is willing to stand up and say "can you not" for one reason or another. Last time I attempted to "push back" (as obnoxious corporate parlance has it) on an unreasonable request — very politely, I might add — I ended up getting pulled aside and saying it was unacceptable. My sin? Saying that we had a heavy workload at that time and thus it wasn't the best timing to introduce one of her many new processes to confuse matters.

She gets in the way of so much stuff. The aggressively garbage pieces of software that we have to use on a daily basis are entirely her fault. The unnecessary degree of micromanagement we have to put into what should be a very simple job is her fault. And the frustration my whole team feels on a pretty regular basis is her fault. It's a real pain, and there's nothing that can be done about it aside from gritting one's teeth and just getting on with it.

That's the reality of "adult life", I suppose. But that doesn't mean it doesn't suck balls!

Hello! Get your questions in before tomorrow if you want me to answer something in a Q&A video, because I'll be recording it tomorrow.

Leave your questions in a comment either here or (preferably) on this post and I'll look forward to answering them!

The Evercade Lynx cartridges are here! It's not an exaggeration to say that I've been really looking forward to these. The Evercade already has a ton of stuff that is unique to its library, but these really are a scoop — to my knowledge, these have never been rereleased on modern platforms, so it's the first time gems like Blue Lightning and Gates of Zendocon have been officially seen for many years.

The first cartridge has some interesting stuff on it, too. The cartridge as a whole is the work of Songbird Productions, who not only picked up the rights to a number of Lynx games from back in the day, they also developed a number of their own games a little after the console's main lifespan, some of which are included as part of the first Lynx cartridge for Evercade. I haven't delved deep into many of them yet, but there are some exciting and ambitious titles to explore among them.

I'm really glad I jumped on board with the Evercade right as it began. The library is now 14 cartridges strong, with a significant number of absolute gems scattered across them. There aren't any of the cartridges where there's nothing I like on them — I even like at least one thing on both the Interplay carts, which are by far everyone's least favourite — and there's something for every mood at the minute… though some people have noted it would be nice to see a few more long-form games like RPGs on the system at some point.

I'm happy with the way it's going right now though; the current lineup provides pick-up-and-play fun times in a variety of styles (plus there are a few RPGs on the Piko Interactive collection!) and, with the addition of the two Lynx carts, a truly unique experience that you can't get anywhere else (outside of emulation, obviously, but that doesn't count).

If you have a gamer in your life and you're struggling to think of a great gift for them for the holidays, consider an Evercade. It'd be great to see this awesome handheld continue to go from strength to strength.

My microphone stand broke today. It had been looking like it was going to go for a while, but when I went to record some stuff earlier, it broke completely. I've ordered a new one that will be here tomorrow, but that's still a bummer — it had been a loyal friend for the last couple of years, but it had also seen some fairly heavy use and wasn't very expensive, so I'm not surprised it decided to give up the ghost eventually.

With this in mind, a few upcoming videos will have slightly different-quality audio due to me using the tie clip mic I normally use for my intro videos for the gameplay. This shouldn't be a huge issue, but I just thought I'd let you know! The mic that went in the stand itself is fine (aside from its USB port being loose, meaning I have to mount it upside down for the cable to stay in) so as soon as I get the new stand I'll be back to normal, but a couple of upcoming Evercade A to Z and Atari A to Z Flashback episodes will have the different audio. (I don't want to say "worse" because I've always been pleasantly surprised at the audio quality of that little tie clip mic!)

Anyway, situations like this are why I'm especially grateful for your kind donations. If you were curious, the ad experiment has been reasonably successful, too; while I certainly wouldn't describe what I've made in the last couple of weeks as a "fortune" by any means, in the long term if traffic stays the way it is, ad income could potentially pay for things like hosting or other subscriptions needed to keep things ticking along. So that's good; hopefully the ads haven't been too intrusive for any of you, and as I said when I put them in, please let me know if you happen to see anything inappropriate or that gets in the way.

Thursday tomorrow, and I'm crossing my fingers that's the day the two Lynx cartridges for the Evercade arrive! They're on the way, so hopefully tomorrow will be the day — I'm just in the mood to revisit some of those classics.

Have a pleasant evening!

I haven't quite finished it yet, so not sure when a writeup will be coming, but since I'm feeling quite tired and a little lacking in inspiration, I thought I'd share a few more screenshots of Quantum Theory, the third-person shooter for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 developed by the creator of Project Zero/Fatal Frame.

This game has really impressed me with its sense of style throughout. The majority of the game is set in the "organic Gothic" tower I mentioned the last time I wrote about this, but there have been a couple of sequences set in the "real" world that provide a nice contrast between the (ruined) world of humanity and the otherworldly weirdness inside the tower.

I've always been kind of fascinated by these sorts of "organic" designs, but I also find them rather unsettling. I suspect this feeling is entirely deliberate on the part of the designers; and with Makoto Shibata's background? Well, unsettling horror was always going to be a part of this somewhere, wasn't it?

Were you to believe the Internet at large (including some "professional" reviews), this "looks like a PS2 game". 1) that would be nothing to be ashamed of, given some of the beautiful games on that platform, and 2) no.

The sense of style and the intriguing story has kept me playing far longer than Gears of War ever did. It helps that, as noted last time, the actual game structure is rather different to Gears of War, even if the primary mechanics that you interact with the game through are very similar.

Anyway, I think I'm approaching the end of this so should have it polished off in the next day or two. That means a writeup coming soon — and I've already recorded a short;Play video on the subject for the near future, too. Haven't edited that yet, though, so it won't be this week.

Play more games that everyone hates! They're full of surprises.

S-Rank patrons: Don't forget to get your questions in for the November 2020 Q&A. Click here for details. You've got until November 28.

There's been a noticeable upswing in negativity and general bleakness recently — not just in my own head, but online, too. Ridiculous, pointless arguments and drama on social media really seem to be getting out of hand — in the last few days we've had a bunch of pointless bullshit over both Persona 5 and Animal Crossing, of all things — and everyone just seems to be emotionally exhausted.

I mean, I'm not really surprised; I'm even feeling a bit of the ol' fatigue and I was one of the first people to welcome the "lockdown" situation with open arms, since it's not as if I really go out and do anything most of the time, anyway. But somehow, the whole "go out, don't forget your mask, make sure you plan ahead and don't do anything you don't need to, also you're probably not going to see your friends for a very long time" has been starting to feel… I don't know if "oppressive" is the right word, but it's certainly weighing heavily on everyone.

The trouble with people taking out their frustration and aggression online is that it cuts off that one potential source of relief from lockdown frustration and loneliness. If you can't go out and hanging out online is undesirable, what are you supposed to do for some sort of meaningful contact with other people that won't send one or the other of you into an apoplectic rage? Beats me; I was never any good at this stuff before this whole situation started.

Oh well. Just gotta be British about this. Keep on keeping on, stiff upper lip and all that. It's not as if I don't have lots of things to do that don't require leaving the house. It'd just be nice to live in a world that felt a bit more "normal". But I suspect that's not happening for a little while yet.

Hang in there! And get some sleep; that's what I'm off to do right about now.

S-Rank patrons: Don't forget to get your questions in for the November 2020 Q&A. Click here for details. You've got until November 28.

Didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to today as I'm really struggling to shake this pain off this weekend, but I did manage to get six videos recorded and ready to go, so I should be satisfied with that. I think I've resolved with myself that I'll record the remaining four I wanted to get done during the week at times when I'm bored with the day job. I get bored a lot with the day job, so I can probably be a lot more productive on my various projects if I turn "bored time" into "me time" rather than "sleep time" — as much as it is nice to go back to bed after the frustratingly daily "Morning Catch Up Call".

My trouble is that I tend to think of things in "all or nothing" terms. Because I wanted to get ten videos done this weekend, "only" having done six feels like I've "failed" somehow, even though I've actually accomplished over half of what I wanted to do, and I have the whole week to catch up on those remaining four. The strange way the human mind works and all that. We are, for sure, a curious and flawed species.

Anyway, it's not quite bedtime yet so rather than stressing about whether or not I feel up to recording any more this evening (I do not, but my brain is trying to tell me that I "should") I think I'm going to settle down with a nice bit of Warriors hack-and-slash to chill out for a bit, and hopefully I'll feel a bit better in the morning. If not, yum yum painkillers I guess!

Hope you've all had a pleasant weekend!

S-Rank patrons: Don't forget to get your questions in for the November 2020 Q&A. Click here for details. You've got until November 28.

Was going to do a bunch of recording today, but after recording all the intros I was still feeling some of the pain I was suffering from last night, so decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. I have filled my day with enjoying the first few hours of Atelier Ayesha, and a bit of grinding (and actual story progress) in Warriors Orochi 2.

Obviously I'll have much more to say about Atelier Ayesha a little way down the road, but I like what I see so far. It feels authentically Atelier, but it also feels noticeably different to the Arland series. Among other things, the atmosphere of the whole thing is completely different, which is unsurprising given the whole "Dusk" concept in this trilogy, but it's a nice change. Subtle, but definitely appreciated — and the trademark Atelier wholesomeness is definitely still there, too, albeit with a tad more melancholy this time around.

The alchemy system is very different this time around. Well, that's not quite accurate, I guess; it actually feels like it's blending elements from a few sources. There's some basic principles from Arland's systems there, plus Mana Khemia's "add one ingredient at a time" thing, where things happen based on the order you put things in the pot, plus the beginnings of what would become Atelier Lulua's elemental affinity system for producing effects on the final item. It's very interesting; I haven't quite got my head around all of it yet, but it's still early days so far.

Meanwhile, Warriors Orochi… well, you probably know how I feel about Warriors games by now. I was initially a little disappointed at how similar Warriors Orochi 2 is to its predecessor, but the more I play, the more its differences become apparent. I mean, it's still quite similar, but the new stories, new combinations of characters, new objectives, new abilities and new modes keep things interesting; I tried one of the "Dream Mode" stages earlier today, which provides you with a predefined team of three and challenges you to complete a fairly lengthy scenario. It was a good time.

Mostly, though, the core addictive quality that I discovered in my original video playthrough of Warriors Orochi is present and correct here. The objective-based unlocking of abilities that can then be globally applied remains, and the weapon fusion aspect remains absolutely essential to powering up your characters. In my progress this evening, I crossed a definite power boundary from "these officers are a bit tough" to "IT'S TIME TO SET LU BU ON FIRE", which is always a satisfying moment. And the nice thing is that because the abilities are global unlocks and the characters are mixed up in the various modes, beginning a new Story Mode campaign never feels like you're having to start over completely from scratch.

I want to cover Warriors Orochi 2 and other Warriors games in more detail at some point, but Warriors Wednesday was too much work. Perhaps I'll just do some occasional articles when I feel I have something to say, much like I did with Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition a while back.

Anyway. The pain seems to have mostly passed so I'm going to have a sandwich and get some sleep, then hopefully I'll get some recording done tomorrow. Today has been pleasantly chilled, aside from putting up with said pain, so I'm ready to get stuff done tomorrow for sure!

Suffering a fair bit of pain from my hernia this evening, so forgive me if this is short and/or incoherent!

We've reached the end of another week. Everything is all sort of blurring into one at the moment; it seems like just yesterday that I was complaining "why is it only Monday" to my wife, and here we are at the end of another week. I guess that's a good thing, maybe? Although it's not as if there's particularly anything worth waiting for right now… nothing with a concrete date, anyway. At least, it doesn't feel that way; those excited for the next-gen consoles have doubtless been eagerly awaiting their release, but I'm just not feeling the hype at the minute.

This weekend and next I'll be recording some videos to get in the can ready for the next few weeks. Don't forget that if you're an S-Rank Patron you can submit your questions for the inaugural and experimental Q&A video at the end of the month — drop by this post and leave a comment there (not here!) if you want to take part. There's been a few great questions so far but it'd be nice to have a few more — if you've already submitted one, feel free to drop another one!

Anyway. I think it's about time I went and lay down and howled in pain for a bit. This will pass, so long as I can convince my cats not to step on it for an hour or two. That's the most challenging bit.

Have a pleasant evening!